Family Allowance/Child Benefit for sim parents?

[qvcatullus]

I might be crazy, but I thought that in Sims 1, having children lowered your bills by a certain amount. May be wholesale fabrication, but I don't think I'm senile yet. I'm only in my 20's.
Since bills seem to be a simple blanket way of covering everything from basic upkeep and maintenance to taxes, then lowering bills would be the easiest way to replicate the American method -- one generally pays significantly less in taxes with children, although probably not nearly as much as the children cost. As mentioned above, the other methods are welfare related, and I don't see The Sims replicating that particular aspect of life any time soon, since the game practically crams money down your throat. Sim money, that is -- they have 'holiday packs' to get some real money back from us.

*No, really, I love little children! I just couldn't possibly eat a whole one!

[Ancient Sim]

A mod like this never occurred to me, which it should have done as I live in the UK and take Child Benefit as a given.  I could certainly have used it in my re-started Pleasantview, where I am determined not to use any money cheats (because, as has been said before, it makes the game too easy).  Due of this, the Brokes were unable to pay the nanny and she stole Brandi's bedside table and candle (good riddance), then refused to come back the next day.  The annoying thing is that they had enough before Brandi got a bad chance card and lost a day's pay, thus lowering the balance.  Quite why it's done that way I don't know, because they come home and are paid again, putting them back where they were before the shift started, so why doesn't the game just send them home without any pay?  That's another issue, of course.

[Ness]

Interesting topic...

here in Australia they introduced a baby bonus - started paying $3000 at the birth of a child - sadly this caused a lot of teenagers to go out and get pregnant because they were getting (as they saw it) a huge amount of cash, not realising that the baby would cost them so much more.  Unfortunately the government hands out so many different welfare payments that it can actually be quite lucrative to be a single mother, unemployed and pushing out babies - certainly pays more than any job an uneducated, inexperienced person could actually obtain.

The government is slowly increasing the baby bonus - going up to $4000 some time this year, and $5000 at some stage next year - once again I can only see this payment encouraging the very young uneducated to go out and have children...  heck, I'm 30, have a a degree and post-graduate qualification behind me, and have a secure job as a teacher (with 17 weeks of paid maternity leave) and all these payments and such aren't making me want to run out and have babies...  can you tell I'm getting a lot of pressure to do this, though?

I know people of low IQ who would be tempted to make use of all these bonuses and payments won't necessarily produce children of correspondingly low IQ, but children brought up in this kind of system are at a significant disadvantage to those born to educated, intelligent parents - and will often not have the desire or drive to achieve anything else for themselves.

My parents were rather poor, but did everything they could te educate my sister and myself - sure, the local state high school had to do for us, but so many of our peers were from the background mentioned above...  the attitude of a lot of their parents was "the dole/working at the local chicken factory was good enough for me so it's good enough for my child" - many parents wanted their children to leave school ASAP without going on to complete their final 2 years of schooling, let alone do any further study after that.  Even children whose parents wanted them to continue had so much peer pressure to drop out that many girls in my year opted to get pregnant just so that their parents would allow them to leave school.

Anyway, forgetting all discussions of welfare and other systems - the sims really is too easy - you end up with so much money floating around that it gets embarrassing - adding another way to get even more money isn't actually necessary.

[jrd]

Emma: I just made it with the career editor in SimPE. Fairly easy to do (if tedious).

[Emma]

OK Jordi! I don't have SimPE, maybe I should get it

[ZephyrZodiac]

I don't know how I ever managed to play my game without it!

[taichikitten]

What about a mod that would force divorced or absent parents (i.e. not living on the same lot as their child) to pay child support?

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, they can always send money with JM's money order!

[anyeone]

We also have "child benefits" here through welfare, which is an abomination in my opinion. I say if you can't afford them without my help then don't have them! I am sure there are people out there that actually need welfare temporarily, but there are too many uneducated women popping out babies by several different men so they sit on their fat ass and collect welfare for each of their kids, who meanwhile are maniacal little heathens...

I simply hate this sense of entitlement so many people seem to have in this day and age. You are "entitled" to NOTHING.


very sore topic...

AMEN!!!!

I am disgusted at the idea that someone would "keep popping out kids because the government pays them for it."

People who can't afford kids shouldn't have them because they need to be able to take care of themselves first.  Birth control is much cheaper than pregnancy and parenthood.   No one is "entitled" to reproduce if they are incapable of caring for said offspring, IMO having a kid you can't afford to feed and clothe is tantamount to child abuse.  I could care less what their education level is, but the fact of the matter is if a person can't take care of themselves without government assistance they have no business reproducing.

[rohina]

Over the past few budgets the Australian Govt has been setting aside more money and new incentives to encourage more people to have children.

I know I kicked myself when the child cash bonus went up substantially just after I had my daugher - I only got $500; if I had waited a couple of months it would have been some outrageous amount like 2,000. 

[ZephyrZodiac]

I couldn't agree more, anyeone, and in the UK birth control for women is free if you are on Income Support.

Personally, I think child Benefit should only be paid once the child has grown up and is a responsible and productive member of society!  A reward for a job well done!

[Emma]

I am disgusted at the idea that someone would "keep popping out kids because the government pays them for it."

I would like to point out that I was kidding when I said this 

[ZephyrZodiac]

Emma, I don't think anyone was getting at you!  Maybe this discussion is getting a little to heated and we should all take a step back and remember what happens when we get too het up!

[Emma]

LOL I know, I just thought I should make it clear though 

[Kukes]

Over the past few budgets the Australian Govt has been setting aside more money and new incentives to encourage more people to have children.

What was their catchphrase? "One for the mother, one for the father, and one for the Prime Minister"? - that turned me right off. 

here in Australia they introduced a baby bonus - started paying $3000 at the birth of a child - sadly this caused a lot of teenagers to go out and get pregnant because they were getting (as they saw it) a huge amount of cash, not realising that the baby would cost them so much more.  Unfortunately the government hands out so many different welfare payments that it can actually be quite lucrative to be a single mother, unemployed and pushing out babies - certainly pays more than any job an uneducated, inexperienced person could actually obtain.

The government is slowly increasing the baby bonus - going up to $4000 some time this year, and $5000 at some stage next year - once again I can only see this payment encouraging the very young uneducated to go out and have children...

I know quite a few people who've taken advantage of the system in this way. They see it as being "set for life" - or at least sixteen years, depending on how many children they have - because they get plenty of money from Centrelink, plus child endowment, commission housing (where if your bathroom/kitchen/roof needs renovating, they come and do it free and quickly - wish they'd do that for my house!). As a student, stuck on $100 a week from the government and whatever else I can earn before they cut me off, it makes me angry... I just see it as an example of the government wanting people to choose this lifestyle and making it extremely difficult for other people from poorer backgrounds to get the education they need for whatever career they've chosen. A disturbing trend in Australian society, that's my opinion. 

[ZephyrZodiac]

The same kind of thing happened here in the UK when they stopped student grants and replaced them with loans.  Rich kids didn't get grants, they got parental contributions, now they don't need loans, they get parental help!  Poor kids if they do make it through college, graduate under a mountain of debt which eventually has to be repaid!  I appreciate that in the US there isn't a grants system, but what there is is a well developed system of scholarships, plus a lot of on-campus part-time employment, neither of which apply here in the UK.
It just seems wrong that those kids who want to make a future for themselves are often stopped because they really cannot afford it!

[Sleepycat]

(ZZ this is not all pointed at you or anyone in particular)

It just seems wrong that those kids who want to make a future for themselves are often stopped because they really cannot afford it!

and thats unfair? yet some here have said that is someone couldn't afford a kid then they shouldn't have one... not the same? but yet it is, no one is entitled to anything (also said here) 


I'm disabled and I'm not able to work at all which means I'm poor and although I get goverment help (SSI) I also need help from welfare for my daughter (The one I should not have had according to some people here) Should my daughter and I just drop dead since we can't afford to live without help?


Not all women or men on welfare are fat, lazy and stupid, not all women are popping out kids to stay on welfare.  Welfare has changed, atleast around here, moms have to work in order to keep getting any help from welfare and if your getting welfare and working, if you make just a couple dollars more "then allowed" then your welfare gets cut (by more then the few dollars)

[cristalfiona]

I couldn't agree more, anyeone, and in the UK birth control for women is free if you are on Income Support.

Actually, birth control in the uk is free to all women, and for men too in certain health centres.
And sleepycat, comments arent aimed at people like you, who have a child because they want one and are going to love it and take care of it. They are aimed at people who have children for the sole aim of getting cash benefits from the government, then leave their children to run wild, doing whatever they want, even if that means skipping school and attacking old ladies in the street.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Sleepycat, I don't think we any of us meant to imply that people who are disabled should not have children, or receive help.  There is a big difference between needing help and simply expecting it, which I think is what some people were referring to.  And I don't think the help should stop for your kids because they reach the age of 18, if they have good enough grades to go to University, then they should NOT have to mortgage the rest of their lives to pay for it!  In the UK we have a so-called Labour government who have done nothing at all to help underprivileged young people get an education beyond 18 (they'll pay them (not the parents who support them) 30 quid a week to stay on at school, then if they want to go to college they're on their own!  And quite a few of those who now serve in the present government probably received grants in order to get their degrees!

[cristalfiona]

The labour government is a joke (sorry to anyone who supports them), as of next year, its 3000 pounds (sorry, no pound sign on my german keyboard) fees per year of your course. For someone on a language course, like me, thats 12000 just from fees, and at the end of my course i will owe over 16000 from my loan. Add 2 grand in your overdraft (maximum after a 4 year course), and you owe nearly 30000 pounds just from trying to improve your career prospects.

You can still get flats and small houses for that much in some parts of the uk. Its totally ridiculous.

[nectere]

*sigh*

There are people on welfare who actually need it temporarily o9r even long term due to some accident or something.

However - there are a LOT of women on welfare simply for the sake of cashing in on the baby business our government has set up. Last time I checked you were allowed to sit on your ass until the kid was the age of three or soemthing close to that. Which is why in my neighborhood I often see women with several children under the age of five. These young women who could have a lovely future instead are strapped down with 3 or 4 kids by the time they are 21.

The future really doenst look all that bright when you consider what we as a society are supporting for our future. We will end up with a bunch of able bodied yet weak minded people who cant fend for themselves.

Planning for the future is important and I see too many people not doing it, only planning for the here and now. The government shouldnt be a safety net for people who keep falling, there has to be some personal accountability.

[IgnorantBliss]

Not everyone considers being trapped with 3 kids at a young age a bad thing. Some people choose to do it, and for some that is the "lovely future". Now, that's not for me, and I don't understand why anyone would want to have 3 small children, but some just do, regardless of the social benefits. I know someone of my age (29) who went to medical school with me, graduated, and now has 4 kids. A close friend of mine is very financially secure without any benefits, but yet has chosen to have 3 small children, none of them accidents. Not everyone who's having kids is doing it for the financial benefits, for heaven's sake. Most of the highly educated co-workers I work with have at least 2 kids, many 3 or 4. I'm sure there is a small number of people who do it for the financial reasons, but most people have kids for other reasons, mainly for the biological need a lot of people seem to get to have offspring.

[cwykes]

In the UK, single mums used to get high priority on the local authority housing list.  DK how true it is now, but it certainly led to a lot of young girls getting pregnant so they could leave home and have a place of their own paid for by the taxpayers.  That changed the way a generation thought - getting pregnant became a smart move instead of stupid.  It shifted the moral climate a bit as well about unmarried mums. 

Tax credits only work if you pay tax.  a lot of low income people don't pay tax at all in the UK, so they get zero benefit from tax credits. they don't get cash off the tax authority when they aren't on the tax rolls.

[J. M. Pescado]

Children should be made illegal and anyone who has one should be fined for it. Not the other way around.

[BlueSoup]

Not that I disagree, JM, I absolutely do. 

But where are you now?  And no one has been stupid in like 2 days, except briefly Twain.